[gosla]

Hello;

It seems that there's always lots of references on this board to Ebay. Why not? It's a great source for finding just about anything... I just read another "deal gone bad" article here and wanted to point out a few things to the uninitiated...

PayPal is bad news. Yes, yes, I know they are large and prominent in the online paying business but if you do some homework, you may be surprised...

First, as far as "protection" goes, did you know that Ebay has a $25 deductable and a $200 limit to their protection? Also, you need to wait about 60 days to request compensation after being ripped off. Beyond that, you'll have to be prepared for a lot of paperwork and a major pain in the ass... Get cheated on a 911 engine deal? Maybe, if you're lucky, after 2 months you'll get $175 back. That's it...

PayPal is really scary. They, like Ebay, make lots of comments about how you're "protected" if you use them, but in reality, this is like a gang of thugs in a dark alley telling you that you should feel safe and trust them. PayPal is borderline criminal and the craps about to hit the fan with them. If you're a seller, it doesn't take much beyond someone who knows the system to cause you're well earned funds to be taken back from you. If months later, 6-12 months later even, they buyer complains to PayPal or worse yet, their credit card company, PayPal will immediately apply a "pending reversal" to your account. They will hold the money, and if it's not in the account, you'll see a negative balance and they will persue collecting the difference from you. If you have a charge card or a checking account on file, they will take the money without your approval. Try to call them when this happens and you absolutely will lose your temper after dealing with their $10.00 an hour "professionals" who are about as bad as they come... Try to email and you'll recieve a canned email that likely won't have anything to do with your situation... Regardless, once you get that "pending" reversal, count your funds gone. - Even if you follow ALL OF THE FINE PRINT... They have a surprising history of hijacking funds to generate more profit for themselves. The user agreement lets them do whatever they want. Check it out yourself...

PayPal lost their endorsement from the Better Business Bureau because of their log of over 100,000 unanswered complaints... There are around 1,500 recent complaints on file with the BBB and several hundred have been examined and judged against PayPal... There are several large class action lawsuits filed against them for stealing funds. Several states forbid them to do business. New York State just levied a HUGE penalty on them for breaking all sorts of laws... They have some rules that make it impossible to collect money from them, even if you follow ALL of their own rules, which is nearly impossible anyway... Their massive user agreement gives them the power of god. A court ruling just found this agreement to be unfair in how it shields them from lawsuits. It makes it extremely expensive to use legal means to collect money from them, no matter what the reasons is...

Check out sites like paypalsucks.com for the facts. Since so many Pelican members use Ebay, I thought I may spare some of them a lot of unnecessary pain by bringing this to light. Do your own research. It's pretty scary to see what's going on with them. The point is, proceed with caution if you use them, whether you're buyer or the seller. Mark my words: within a year or two, they'll be another Enron...

Oh well, gotta put funds in my PayPal account so I can buy some Porsche turbo motors from Mexico now. lol







NSA - Hazleton, Pennsylvania